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The Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on a batch of cross-petitions filed by factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and CM Shinde pertaining to the Maharashtra political crisis (Image: News18)
In parliamentary terms, a whip can refer to both a written order to members of a party to abide by a certain direction, and to a designated party official of the party who is authorised to issue such a direction
In a judgment that is being viewed as a setback for Maharashtra’s former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, the Supreme Court order on Thursday in the Sena vs Sena battle means Eknath Shinde will continue in his role as the chief minister despite reaping the benefits of an “illegal” decision taken by the then Governor.
The court, while noting that Thackeray’s government could not be restored as he had quit from the chief minister’s post, hit out at the Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for taking decisions that helped the Shinde camp.
The apex court added that the Speaker’s decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as chief whip of the Shiv Sena party was illegal. “To hold that it is a legislature party which appoints the whip would be to severe the umbilical cord with the political party. It means group of MLAs can disconnect from the political party. Whip be appointed by political party is crucial for the 10th Schedule. In Nov 2019, MLAs unanimously resolved to appoint Uddhav Thackeray as the party leader and Eknath Shinde as the group leader. The Speaker did not attempt to identify which of the two persons — Mr [Sunil] Prabhu or Mr Gogawale — was the whip authorised by the political party. Speaker must recognise only the whip appointed by the political party,” the court said.
As the judgment triggers a war of words between the two Sena factions, with each claiming legal victory, News18 takes a look at the concept of a whip and what it means in polity:
What is a whip?
In parliamentary terms, a whip can refer to both a written order to members of a party to abide by a certain direction, and to a designated party official of the party who is authorised to issue such a direction.
The origins of the term can be traced to the old British practice of “whipping in” lawmakers to follow the party line.
A whip may require that party members be present in the House for an important vote, or that they vote only in a particular way. In India, parties appoint a senior member to issue whips and this person is called chief whip.
Different kinds of whips
The types of whips or orders issued by a political party are one-line, two-line or three-line whip, which essentially means the number of times a direction is underlined. A three-line whip is thus the strongest.
A one-line whip is issued to inform members of a party about a vote and allows them to abstain in case they do not want to toe the party line. A two-line whip is an instruction to party members to be present in the House at the time of voting and a three-line whip is issued directing them to vote as per the party line. This is usually used in cases of trust vote.
What happens if you defy the whip?
As per Firstpost, a legislator may be disqualified from the party for disobeying a whip, especially the three-line whip. The anti-defection law allows the speaker/chairperson to disqualify a defiant member. The exception is when more than a third of the legislators vote against a party directive, which effectively leads to a split like in the case of the Shiv Sena.
What was the Shinde faction’s argument?
The Shinde camp had argued before the Supreme Court that “two political whips were appointed on the same day”.
“The faction, which has been now recognised officially, had the majority in the political party then. They can’t presume and say that we have incurred an ex-facie disqualification. There is an overwhelming discontent in the cadre of the party and didn’t want to continue with the alliance,” it had said.
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